Sunday, April 09, 2006
The neo-cons play 'Wag the Mexican'
I've been hesitant to weigh in on the issue of immigration. I've been secretly thrilled to witness a movement amongst latinos in this country. If they begin organizing on the scale they've succeeded with in some of the South American nations, our established and entreanched leaders will have a real challenge on their hands. I've been greatly pained, however, by the subtle consistancy with which this debate is being used to cultivate the Hydra of Evil. She whose hideous heads answer to 'xenophobia','racism', and that fucking 'sense of entitlement' the Right likes to baste their followers in.
It is a complicate issue. I myself have first hand experience with being surgically cut from a workforce by the influx of illegal labor. For a good part of the ninties, I worked in the kitchens - not bad work for a guy who wanted to work part-time and write part-time (and party all the time. . .) During the beginning, the stainless steel workplace was a shiny example of diversity. I learned the trade from guys in their forties who were raising a family on a cook's income. I didn't want to do it for my entire life, but I felt like I always had something I could fall back on. 'The world will always need restaurants, a good cook will never starve.'
By the turn of the century, illegals were everywhere, working for four, five bucks an hour less than the rest of us. Even better yet, when one of them got bled out or burned bad - then it was time for a manager to look a little closer at 'dem papers. Adios, amigo. Worker's comp claims rapidly approached zero. I understand this phenomenon has taken place in all sorts of industries, from meat packing to construction. Desperate labor is the glorious sword Excaliber in the ruling classes' righteous war against unions and working man.
So there is a problem, the situation can be 'tweaked', yet this is not a problem from the point of view of business. So the factions within the GOP that used to set the agenda, the 'country club republicans' not the 'preacher republicans', did not seem to have much of a motive for changing the status quo. 'Cheap labor with no rights', those fuckers mumble that in their sleep when they're having a wet dream.
But then this little thought popped into my head. A bit of a mental memory where some of the rediculous rhetoric the folks like Newt Gengrich and Jesse Helms leveled at President Clinton during his intervention in the Balkans to try to preclude a bit of genocide. He was 'wagging the dog', using our military and placing our brave lads at risk for nothing put the chance to distract the American people from his legal troubles at home. He didn't give a fuck about the Bosnians or the Serbs, he just wanted to look cool in his flight suit as he wrapped himelf in the mantel of Commander in Chief.
I didn't believe it then, but the attack by the republicans was valid. I believe that in the Herr Goebbels 'Propaganda and Manipulation of the Masses for Dummies' book I got, 'wag the dog' theory gets covered in chapter three. Right after the chapter on creating an 'enemy inside, enemy outside' mentality, but before the chapter on the means to incorparate the religious authority into the will of the state. Certainly, even in this world of 24 hour newscycles and shitloads of op ed pieces, a society can ony focus on a few major issues at a time (except during a Presidential Election, where we can't even focus on one.)
So the same shitheads who teleconference those fucks at FOX News everyday to discuss how the events of the day shall be 'handled' - 'homicide bombers' rather than 'suicide bombers', 'thugs' instead of 'rebels', you know the deal - have decided to 'Wag the Mexican' to distract Americans from the glaring problems this administration has created and fucked up.
The occupation of Iraq remains the Number One issue in this country! We've blown a huge wad of cash, had thousands of American soilders maimed and killed, fucking wacko fanatics all over the world are learning that American soilders are not invincible - they can be fought and they can be killed, we've helped degrade the notion of international law, and we've seen more death and torture than I can stand. I don't know who in the world doesn't think that the neo-con hawks had Iraq in the sights from day one, and they 'sold' this war to the American people with the use of advertising agencys and some selective declassification of questionable intel. We've even seen how the administration was willing to target a man's wife as a shitty form of payback for questioning their will.
The 'reconstruction' (fuck, I just can't say that with enough contempt) of Iraq, like the 'reconstruction' post-Katrina has just been a marvelous blue-print into how ruling class fuckers like this administration think government is suppose to work. Taxes are extorted from the working men and women of this country, on the wages you earn and the wealth you try to accumulte. Sure the top quintile gets taxed too, but not at near the rates we endure, and personally, I don't think the taxation of one's investments - capital gains - should even be discussed in the same context as the taxation of one's labor. This tax revenue then gets funneled into projects like the Iraq war, where a handful of politically connected corporate conglomerates are given contracts without any form of bidding whatsoever and guarantees of certain level of profitability. For the most part, at this point Haliburton totally half-asses the services they've been contracted to provide and billions of dollars just fucking disappear. In Iraq, according to a U.S.A Today report, only a third of the projects scheduled have been completed. While 77,000 jobs have been created in the country, the administration promised 1.5 million when Bush and Co were out babbling on about their 'Marshal Plan.' The CEO's and principle investors of these corporations make off like bandits, giving themselves huge bonuses with the cash that just last fall was taxpayer money. They take their huge windfalls, 'invest' it in the campaigns of their local republicans and the cycle continues. It's a fucking load of shit.
The Iraq war is an open sore that needs the attention of some competent, principled leadership. Is that leadership in the democratic party? I haven't fucking seen it, but that don't change the need. Iraqi's will keep dying and the corruption will keep right on spreading until someone steps up.
The utter incompetence, and willingness to insist on a privatization model when a quarter of the country is blasted back to the stone age; a President who took the Air Force One redeye to fly back to Washington to sign a pandering Terri Schaivo bill, but who took over a week to realize Katrina had been a bad thing. . .
Let's not forget this whole 'Scooter' Libby case and the fucking shell game of classified, de-classified that was perfected during Iran-Contra to weasal out of accountability. Some fact or figure that shines a light on the administrations incompetence or deliberate wrongdoing, well, that's classified, you can't have that. Something that might boster their standing in the polls, even if it will be exposed for the schlock it is in a matter of weeks, well that's something the public need to see. 'Oh, you want to investigate someone for lying to congress or illegally selling arms to a terrorist state? I'm sorry, but you'll have to throw that case out since all the evidence you'd need to prove it has been fucking classified.' National security trumps domestic laws. The people would rather have security than liberty.
This shits' out of control. Everybody knows it. The plurality of the population that does not worship George W as a biblical figure and will grit their teeth and send their sons off to fight against the infidels, this segment of the population wants Bush removed and the government reformed right fucking now. Every poll says that, and when the republicans lose the majority this fall, they will loose the immunity from serious investigation that has cloaked their crimes and ethical lapses for over the last five years. Tom DeLay's resignation speech was peppered with references to the horror which the loss of the majority will rain down upon them. They must get a muzzle back on the American People, and to do it they'll just start shouting and wagging the Mexican.
It is a complicate issue. I myself have first hand experience with being surgically cut from a workforce by the influx of illegal labor. For a good part of the ninties, I worked in the kitchens - not bad work for a guy who wanted to work part-time and write part-time (and party all the time. . .) During the beginning, the stainless steel workplace was a shiny example of diversity. I learned the trade from guys in their forties who were raising a family on a cook's income. I didn't want to do it for my entire life, but I felt like I always had something I could fall back on. 'The world will always need restaurants, a good cook will never starve.'
By the turn of the century, illegals were everywhere, working for four, five bucks an hour less than the rest of us. Even better yet, when one of them got bled out or burned bad - then it was time for a manager to look a little closer at 'dem papers. Adios, amigo. Worker's comp claims rapidly approached zero. I understand this phenomenon has taken place in all sorts of industries, from meat packing to construction. Desperate labor is the glorious sword Excaliber in the ruling classes' righteous war against unions and working man.
So there is a problem, the situation can be 'tweaked', yet this is not a problem from the point of view of business. So the factions within the GOP that used to set the agenda, the 'country club republicans' not the 'preacher republicans', did not seem to have much of a motive for changing the status quo. 'Cheap labor with no rights', those fuckers mumble that in their sleep when they're having a wet dream.
But then this little thought popped into my head. A bit of a mental memory where some of the rediculous rhetoric the folks like Newt Gengrich and Jesse Helms leveled at President Clinton during his intervention in the Balkans to try to preclude a bit of genocide. He was 'wagging the dog', using our military and placing our brave lads at risk for nothing put the chance to distract the American people from his legal troubles at home. He didn't give a fuck about the Bosnians or the Serbs, he just wanted to look cool in his flight suit as he wrapped himelf in the mantel of Commander in Chief.
I didn't believe it then, but the attack by the republicans was valid. I believe that in the Herr Goebbels 'Propaganda and Manipulation of the Masses for Dummies' book I got, 'wag the dog' theory gets covered in chapter three. Right after the chapter on creating an 'enemy inside, enemy outside' mentality, but before the chapter on the means to incorparate the religious authority into the will of the state. Certainly, even in this world of 24 hour newscycles and shitloads of op ed pieces, a society can ony focus on a few major issues at a time (except during a Presidential Election, where we can't even focus on one.)
So the same shitheads who teleconference those fucks at FOX News everyday to discuss how the events of the day shall be 'handled' - 'homicide bombers' rather than 'suicide bombers', 'thugs' instead of 'rebels', you know the deal - have decided to 'Wag the Mexican' to distract Americans from the glaring problems this administration has created and fucked up.
The occupation of Iraq remains the Number One issue in this country! We've blown a huge wad of cash, had thousands of American soilders maimed and killed, fucking wacko fanatics all over the world are learning that American soilders are not invincible - they can be fought and they can be killed, we've helped degrade the notion of international law, and we've seen more death and torture than I can stand. I don't know who in the world doesn't think that the neo-con hawks had Iraq in the sights from day one, and they 'sold' this war to the American people with the use of advertising agencys and some selective declassification of questionable intel. We've even seen how the administration was willing to target a man's wife as a shitty form of payback for questioning their will.
The 'reconstruction' (fuck, I just can't say that with enough contempt) of Iraq, like the 'reconstruction' post-Katrina has just been a marvelous blue-print into how ruling class fuckers like this administration think government is suppose to work. Taxes are extorted from the working men and women of this country, on the wages you earn and the wealth you try to accumulte. Sure the top quintile gets taxed too, but not at near the rates we endure, and personally, I don't think the taxation of one's investments - capital gains - should even be discussed in the same context as the taxation of one's labor. This tax revenue then gets funneled into projects like the Iraq war, where a handful of politically connected corporate conglomerates are given contracts without any form of bidding whatsoever and guarantees of certain level of profitability. For the most part, at this point Haliburton totally half-asses the services they've been contracted to provide and billions of dollars just fucking disappear. In Iraq, according to a U.S.A Today report, only a third of the projects scheduled have been completed. While 77,000 jobs have been created in the country, the administration promised 1.5 million when Bush and Co were out babbling on about their 'Marshal Plan.' The CEO's and principle investors of these corporations make off like bandits, giving themselves huge bonuses with the cash that just last fall was taxpayer money. They take their huge windfalls, 'invest' it in the campaigns of their local republicans and the cycle continues. It's a fucking load of shit.
The Iraq war is an open sore that needs the attention of some competent, principled leadership. Is that leadership in the democratic party? I haven't fucking seen it, but that don't change the need. Iraqi's will keep dying and the corruption will keep right on spreading until someone steps up.
The utter incompetence, and willingness to insist on a privatization model when a quarter of the country is blasted back to the stone age; a President who took the Air Force One redeye to fly back to Washington to sign a pandering Terri Schaivo bill, but who took over a week to realize Katrina had been a bad thing. . .
Let's not forget this whole 'Scooter' Libby case and the fucking shell game of classified, de-classified that was perfected during Iran-Contra to weasal out of accountability. Some fact or figure that shines a light on the administrations incompetence or deliberate wrongdoing, well, that's classified, you can't have that. Something that might boster their standing in the polls, even if it will be exposed for the schlock it is in a matter of weeks, well that's something the public need to see. 'Oh, you want to investigate someone for lying to congress or illegally selling arms to a terrorist state? I'm sorry, but you'll have to throw that case out since all the evidence you'd need to prove it has been fucking classified.' National security trumps domestic laws. The people would rather have security than liberty.
This shits' out of control. Everybody knows it. The plurality of the population that does not worship George W as a biblical figure and will grit their teeth and send their sons off to fight against the infidels, this segment of the population wants Bush removed and the government reformed right fucking now. Every poll says that, and when the republicans lose the majority this fall, they will loose the immunity from serious investigation that has cloaked their crimes and ethical lapses for over the last five years. Tom DeLay's resignation speech was peppered with references to the horror which the loss of the majority will rain down upon them. They must get a muzzle back on the American People, and to do it they'll just start shouting and wagging the Mexican.
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www.wordpress.com is what Denise recommended for backing up blogs. It even transfers comments for you. I haven't tried it yet myself. But you might want to look into using it unless you want to lose all your words.
I lost a year's worth of writting unless Blogger support pull my blogs out of their asses.
I lost a year's worth of writting unless Blogger support pull my blogs out of their asses.
Hey Aurelius,
Thanks for stopping my by site. I like yours quite a bit, and decided to blogroll you. I look forward to reading more.
Thanks for stopping my by site. I like yours quite a bit, and decided to blogroll you. I look forward to reading more.
Every time I read you, I can't stop wondering how you have managed to aquire such a vast knowledge base? Unfortunately your country men are not widely known about having such thing. There is one major problem; when I read you I also gigle like some stupid teen-age school girl.
# posted by 
: Monday, April 10, 2006 4:34:00 AM
: Monday, April 10, 2006 4:34:00 AM
Hmmm... I know I am in the minority on this, but I believe Clinton actually manufactured the whole Lewinsky thing to distract people away from Whitewater and his desire to bomb the Balkans and Iraq (pre-9/11, when bombs used to be considered bad).
The immigration question: who wants what, and why? If those in power want to grant millions of illegals a legal status, it can only be to drive down labour costs for their buddies, the industrialists. Outsourcing within one's borders is a slippery slope...
Wow... this posting is sounding awfully Republican...
The immigration question: who wants what, and why? If those in power want to grant millions of illegals a legal status, it can only be to drive down labour costs for their buddies, the industrialists. Outsourcing within one's borders is a slippery slope...
Wow... this posting is sounding awfully Republican...
Congrats to the Reverend! I've never heard the theory that Clinton manufactured BJ-gate to distract from his bombing of the Balkans and Iraq. That's groovy, perhaps 'Slick Willy's still one jump ahead of us.
I have to disagree with your second statement. Having laws on the books which discourage employing illegals (since we are talking about corporations here, laws can never do anything but encourange/discourage an artificial being. Whatever the fine is, that's calculated into the total accounting, even if you get caught and the laws happen to get enforced, employing illegals is still usually a major win for a corp) will never be enough to change the economic dynamic.
give them equal rights, and they will be free to organize into unions and fight the good fight.
Make them 'guest workers' who get deported whenever they are unemployed. . . you might as well criminalize unions and make the brown skins the only employable laborers.
I have to disagree with your second statement. Having laws on the books which discourage employing illegals (since we are talking about corporations here, laws can never do anything but encourange/discourage an artificial being. Whatever the fine is, that's calculated into the total accounting, even if you get caught and the laws happen to get enforced, employing illegals is still usually a major win for a corp) will never be enough to change the economic dynamic.
give them equal rights, and they will be free to organize into unions and fight the good fight.
Make them 'guest workers' who get deported whenever they are unemployed. . . you might as well criminalize unions and make the brown skins the only employable laborers.
I've been reading your posts for a while now and realize that you have exactly 2 foci.
1. Religious nuts are bad.
2. GW Bush is bad (and thus GOP is bad, or vice versa).
Granted, thats an over simplification, but I beleive that its fairly accurate.
I read this artical and was thinking it was something new. Illegal immigration, a hot topic currently. Instead of actually posting what we should do about the situation (i.e. kick em all out and build a fence, or embrace them into the workforce) it seemed more of an attack on the current administration.
Sure, I admit, there is a connection to the topics, but other then the last sentence of your blog, it didn't seem as if you ever attempted to tie the 2 topics together. Use a blinker if you're going to change lanes like that, man!
1. Religious nuts are bad.
2. GW Bush is bad (and thus GOP is bad, or vice versa).
Granted, thats an over simplification, but I beleive that its fairly accurate.
I read this artical and was thinking it was something new. Illegal immigration, a hot topic currently. Instead of actually posting what we should do about the situation (i.e. kick em all out and build a fence, or embrace them into the workforce) it seemed more of an attack on the current administration.
Sure, I admit, there is a connection to the topics, but other then the last sentence of your blog, it didn't seem as if you ever attempted to tie the 2 topics together. Use a blinker if you're going to change lanes like that, man!
# posted by : Tuesday, April 11, 2006 10:16:00 AM
: Tuesday, April 11, 2006 10:16:00 AM
. . .
That's some solid criticism. I'll have to dig a little deeper and see what else I got to blog about.
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That's some solid criticism. I'll have to dig a little deeper and see what else I got to blog about.
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